All posts tagged ‘geek moms’

What kind of Geek Mom are you? One thing I’ve learned as the GeekMom community has grown and flourished is that we all have our own form of geekiness. Along with the traditional association with folks who are whizzes at all things technological, we also have readers and writers who find their obsessions in DIY clothing and decor, people who know everything there is to know about comics, and parents who really dig their kids’ games.

My particular geekiness manifests itself in the form of at-home science projects, science fiction, and robots. But there are other aspects of Geek Culture about which I am completely ignorant. And that’s OK — there are many kinds of Geek Moms, and they are all welcome here.

Potter Craft, the publisher of GeekMom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families written by Natania Barron, Corrina Lawson, Jenny Williams and me, has come up with a fun little quiz to find out what kind of Geek Mom you are. If you’re curious, give it a try! You’ll find it on their CrafterNews blog.

And when you’re done with the quiz, go check out the book! No matter what result you come up with, you’ll find a chapter devoted to your own personal brand of geekiness.

The word geek does actually exist in French. It’s even pronounced the same. But it came quite late. So did the other words depicting who I am, such as nerd.

But there’s a lovely French word for “RPG player”: rôliste.

And I’m a rôliste, since many, many years. So I figured I could be playful and offer you a secret origins post from the point of view of a rôliste.

Character creation: As I already told, I was predisposed to geekness since my mom already showed many signs of it. My father had other geeky attributes: he’s a physicist (specialised in fluid mechanics) and an Apple addict from the very beginning.

I read my first Tome in utero, as my mother struggled to finish The Lord of the Rings before my birth.

As bonus and quirk, I already get very blue eyes… so strangely blue, actually, that some people wonder if it’s caused by Dune‘s Spice. They were be my only beauty for all my awkward teen years.

Level 1: I buy Ranger skills, founding an “Adventurers’ Private Club”. But the Difficulty Level is still too high for me: many quests are begun, almost none are ended. I try to build various ambitious huts (such as an underground hut and a three-room hut in a tree) and strangely fail. I’m better at Climbing.

My other points go to Performance skills, especially when it comes to storytelling or to pose on a stone, fiercely brandishing a sword or blowing a horn. I use Barbie dolls to train in Politics and Strategy, including them in complex plots of politics and magics which could have been A Game of Thrones if I had read it then.

Level 2: Like most geeks, I obviously use my XP to boost Intelligence rather than Social or Physical skills.

I’m at ease with academics. I skip two classes. Entering high school two years younger is certainly cool, but doesn’t make you the most popular girl of the school. Being called “not a girl, a genius” may sound flattering but doesn’t help your romantic life.

I’m still improving my Performance skills by writing plays then playing most of the parts, and by singing endlessly during car journeys.

I also give a brief try to Thief’s skills (in the Arsene Lupin‘s way: borrowing objects and leaving a mysterious card) but decide I’ll definitely of Good alignment and would do a better job as Detective. I begin to increase the Cypher/Decypher skill and incidently decide to conceive and build a computer. Do I need to precise it fails?

My current Equipment includes a survival kit, an encoding kit, more books that I can carry and, of course, glasses. I enjoy a lot of adventures, especially with pirates.

Level 3: As a gloomy teenager, I choose a “poete maudit” style. New Equipement includes White Jabot and Black Waistcoat. I update my equipped glasses into contact lenses.

I hesitate between many careers and, what may seem stranger, many races. I could be an Elf, distant and dreamy. Or a Numenorean, forever exiled on these shores. Or a Vampire, a doomed and tormented soul.

For a Character Class, my favourite choice is, of course, Bard. My English teacher shows us Dead Poets Society, therefore I found my own Poetry Society. I write two horrible novels and slightly-less-horrible poems.

Level 4: As a college student, I acknowledge the fact that I’ll be and stay a Multiclassed character. I successively specialize in Mathematics, Literature and History, then Political Science. I sadly admit I’ll never make a good Ranger, nor a good Warrior. There’s still plenty of possibilities, from Enchantress to Warlady, from Bard to Astrophysicist… No, wait, I renounced that one when I decided to come back to Humanities.

Meanwhile, I live wonderful adventures in the many realms of RPG and real life. Many of them are about love, since I’m a proud geek girl!

Level 5: Finally I discover that my dream job would be DADA (Defence Against the Dark Arts) teacher. As there are so few offers for this job since Voldemort’s end, I become a literature teacher instead. Meanwhile, I still write short stories, read more Tomes than my personal library can hold, and play RPGs, including LARPs. That’s an occasion to increase my Social skills and indulge my love for theatre and costumes. Thanks to the French LARP association Don Quichotte, I’m allowed to play the governor’s daughter on actual pirate ships (yes! on sea!), various court ladies from 17th and 18th centuries, and even Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman! Thanks to another LARP association, RAJR, I play a shugenja of the Crane Clan in the Japanese fantasy world of Legend of the Five Rings, as well as various parts, including (of course) an Elf.

Level 6: Around the same time, I choose to becom a Virtual Adept and immerse myself in the Web 2.0. I’m now my mother’s computer hotline (as most of you, I’m sure) and far more of an Apple geek than my dad. That happens when you grow older.

Level 7: Even in RPGs, characters grow old. They set up somewhere, marry, have children, rule some kingdom… Well, I don’t rule a kingdom yet, but I am very lucky about the other parts.

Without even noticing, I became a geek mom, with all the new wonders, questions and interest that arouses. That’s a whole new life.

But “a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. “The man who never reads lives only once,” as a character from G.R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons reminds us. I’m a lucky girl then, for I am in the same time a book geek, a RPG geek, and a mom.

The idea that I get to write a post about my “Secret Origins” makes me ridiculously happy. I debated telling everyone I was bitten by a radioactive squirrel or some-such, but that would be embellishing the truth. Only slightly though, as I was almost bitten by a very angry squirrel when I was a kid. He got stuck in the birdseed container and I reached in to scoop some seed out and nearly lost my life. Really. It was extremely dramatic and my girlie scream was completely warranted. But I suppose a little truth is called for, at least from a certain point of view.

Long before I was a GeekMom, I was a little Geek Girl. I credit this entirely to my Dad who was a huge fan of science fiction and a complete Nerd. He had those horribly thick black-framed glasses that everyone used to wear, read science fiction and horror, and watched cheesy monster movies with me on Saturday afternoons. I even have a picture of him in plaid shorts with black socks and sandals. See, I didn’t stand a chance.

I cut my teeth on movies like Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars and even won a contest for my Princess Leia costume when I was in grade school. My toy box wasn’t full of Barbie dolls, but action figures of Han and Starbuck along with their ships and a Bionic Man doll that had a special table for installing his bionics.

In school, when it came time for those dreaded oral book reports, my Dad suggested science fiction classics. I remember reading “I, Robot” in sixth grade and then giving an oral report to a class full of kids that just didn’t get how cool the Three Laws of Robotics were no matter how hard I tried to explain. I put it down to them not knowing any better, which was probably accurate. Not many kids were in to Asimov or Heinlein or Bradbury in middle school.

That early introduction to science fiction led to a life-long love of all things sci-fi. I went to movies that only “the guys” wanted to see and eventually found my way to asking one guy out on a date. We hit it off and the very next day we went on our second date, to the Boston Museum of Science. Yup, it was a geek love story that eventually led to us getting married and having two adorable little girls who are building me gardens in Viva Pinata as I write this post. Hubby is an Aerospace and Ocean Engineer so I’m hoping he will one day build me a spaceship for real.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and took the leap into blogging a few years back with my own blog, Total Fan Girl. I also host a segment of the same name on The D6 Generation gaming podcast and am thrilled to be writing for GeekMom and co-hosting the brand new GeekMoms Podcast!

So, that’s my origins story. Geek Dad raises little Geek Girl, who in turn marries Geek Boy and has Geek Girls of her own. It might not be as exciting as the radioactive squirrel angle, but I wouldn’t trade it for all the superpowers in the world.

Ruth just returned from a great weekend at Southeast LinuxFest and will be continuing the geekfest this weekend with Maker Faire: NC, where you can find her in the opensource.com booth. And to bring it full geek circle, Monday she’ll be hopping a plane to Portland, OR for Open Source Bridge. If only she could time between conferences to work on her Dragon*Con costume… anybody got a suggestion?

Jenny heads out on Monday with her family for a 40 day trip around the country. Follow their attempts at fun, education, and shenanigans on her trip blog.

It was a fun weekend for Judy Berna, as she camped in the White Mountains of NH with her wonderful in-laws, and hiked to Arethusa Falls, the tallest waterfall in New Hampshire. It was a tough hike, up some pretty rugged terrain, but her metal foot held up well. Now she’s back home, running back and forth to school functions as her kids wrap up their last two weeks of school and her son prepares to graduate.

Chaos Mandy is going to be doing some belated spring cleaning this weekend. She is also going to have a date afternoon with her hubby to see “The Green Lantern” on Sunday.

Cathe is going to be brave and try to start a Pokémon league in Vancouver with another mom. She is hoping to hold it at the new Vancouver game store, Dice Age. However, this weekend is all about dad. The weekend will include Dungeons and Dragons and possibly some Warhammer painting.

Sarah is glad that the chickens have finally moved outside, now the house can be sealed off and all the dust sucked out of it! She looks forward to turning 30 gracefully this weekend with good friends, a lot of shrimp and a showing of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

This last week, Jules had a fabulous time interviewing Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait. She also began pre-orders for the audiobook version of her book From The Mundane To The Insane: A Wonderful Journey Without A Destination. She is now counting the days until school ends on June 29, so that she can get more much needed rest to help her overcome her latest increase in lupus activity.

Laura finally spent some time relaxing on the front porch reading a stack of good books. That will come to an end soon since it’s time to bale hay.

Patricia embarked yesterday on a 14 day mini-tour of the Northeast, with stops in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Vermont. The Wanderlust Yoga Festival is on the docket! Yesterday she might have added New Hampshire to the list. As of this writing, her husband just stuffed 5 days worth of camping equipment into the car-top carrier, which will be used for days 9-12 of the trip.

Rebecca Angel is excited about her two new upcoming albums. Both are live recordings, one from each band. The first cd release party for The Subs will be this Sunday. The Subs enjoys costuming ourselves for each gig and have decided on a Hawaiian theme. Now to find a shirt…

I like to say I’ve been a geek my entire life, and it’s not really that far from the truth. When I was small, my dad would read Lord of the Rings to me. I think this really helped mold me into the geek I am today.

I really started to embrace my geekiness when I was in high school. That was when I got into Star Trek: The Next Generation – I had a picture of the TNG crew in my locker and I started attending Star Trek conventions in 9th grade.

Going to college let me get even more geeky – I started gaming in college. I started playing D&D along with LARPing. I also was really into anime in college, though now I’m a lot less into it than I was.

I was out of college when I met my husband, who is geeky in his own ways. He’s a video game and movie geek. We are from Michigan though moved down to North Carolina a year before we got married. We had a Ren Faire themed wedding on September 30, 2006.

My husband and I circa 2003 (Image: Mandy Horetski)

Because we had gotten married back in Michigan, we opted to wait until our first anniversary to take our honeymoon. We went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon and started trying for a baby once we got back. 3 months later, I was pregnant.

Being pregnant didn’t deter me from my geeky pursuits. It was around this time that I started really getting involved with the Greenville, South Carolina, Browncoats. It was through them that I acquired the name “Chaos”.

There are quite a few people with the name ‘Mandy’ in the Greenville Browncoats. When I joined, there was already Good Mandy and Evil Mandy. So I asked who I could be, and Chaos was suggested. Thus, I became Chaos Mandy, and I rather like it.

After my daughter was born, I found that I had less time for geeky things, especially in the first six months or so of her life. Once we got past the early babyhood, I was able to do more. I had planned on returning to my job after my maternity leave was over, but I got laid off the day before I was suppose to go back to work.

I looked for a job for a while, but when we realized how bad the economy was, both my husband and I went back to school. I’m due to graduate in December. I’m also an aspiring writer – I really hope to have my first novel done by Christmas 2011.

So that’s who I am – college going, novel writing, technically stay at home mom to my 2 1/2 year old daughter who has been a geek all her life!

That's when the little fairy Melusine cuts a bonnet out of the rainbow. Image: My own geek mom.

My son is 8 months old. That’s a bit young to explain how strange/funny/interesting/infuriating it is for him to grow up with a GeekMom. But there is another one who can. For I now realize I grew up with a geek mom myself, even if the word wasn’t invented yet.

Let’s prove it :

She had (still has) whole shelves of Sci-Fi books.

She read The Lord of the Rings during her pregnancy, hastily finishing it before I was born so I could know the end (she said).

She bought Dungeons & Dragons‘ now mythical “red box” as soon as it was possible in France and game-mastered for my schoolmates and me (I was about 10).

She designed special postcards for the time I was on holiday without her. She painted them herself and made them tell a story in episodes about a gnome and a fairy. She even added flaps, revealing the different rooms of the gnome’s house, quite similar to a hobbit’s hole. I remember the wardrobe revealed the gnome’s six bonnets, one for every day of the week (he was wearing the seventh one). Sunday’s bonnet had been cut out of a rainbow by the fairy, to thank the gnome for rescuing her.

She invented a “fairy school” where she was the teacher and I was a fairy pupil, and designed many funny tasks, from collecting special plants and flowers to writing “magical” rhymes. She designed “official fairy diplomas” for the end of the sessions (usually the holidays).

She wrote pirate messages signed by “Barbe Noire” (Blackbeard) and left them in our children’s tent. I wasn’t really scared (I wasn’t easily scared as a child) and that was the beginning of a long running game about imagined pirates in the Alps. (Yes, I know, that’s quite far from the sea. But we were going to the Alps for summer holidays.)

She designed cool costumes for me, such as musketeer or blue-skinned alien girl Themis (original name for Yumi in the wonderful French-Japanese anime Ulysses 31).

We thought it would be fun to wind up National Poetry Month with some of the Geek Moms’ favorite poets and poetry.

My own memories of poetry are quite early. My mother lived in Los Angeles and my father lived in the mountains over six hours away. This was back in the 70’s, so long before books on tape or DVD. So what did my father do to entertain one bored tween and two rambunctious younguns?

Why, recite 19th and 20th century poetry to us, of course. (Can you tell his mother was a librarian?)

My taste in poetry has changed a lot over the years. I am now much taken with Mary Oliver and still have a fondness for T. S. Eliot, most especially this bit from Burnt Norton (The Four Quartets):

What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. My words echo Thus, in your mind. But to what purpose Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves I do not know. Other echoes Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?

In fact, I think that poem helped seal my desire to be a writer–to be able to explore the paths not taken.

The only poem I have ever memorized, and unfortunately I don’t know the source (I got it from a calender). I’ve tried looking for it for years, and the best I could find was something like “Antiphon Anglicus” which basically means it was written a very long time ago. It’s my favorite because it proves even hundreds of years ago being smart was cool.

“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrowCreeps in this petty place from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded timeAnd all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty deathOut, out brief candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no moreIt is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

–Shakespeare, Macbeth. (I had it memorized, but I did go double-check to make sure I had it exactly.)

Whenever I think of this in my head, I heard Christopher Plummer’s voice as I saw him play MacBeth on Broadway a loong time ago.

Sonnet 73:

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou seest the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take away,Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.In me thou see’st the glowing of such fireThat on the ashes of his youth doth lie,As the death-bed whereon it must expireConsumed with that which it was nourish’d by.This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

–Usually it’s the last line that is quoted but I love the whole thing. It may help that Edward Woodward recited it on an episode of the Equalizer. I’m a sucker for great English voices.

Sophie:

The only poem I have ever memorized is not suitable for GeekMom, even if it is about parents! (Warning: It is NSFW!)

When I thought about it, I realized a lot of those K-12 years stuck! I think I can still do all of “Annabel Lee,” which I performed for my 8th grade English class. I competed in the Poetry category of forensics for a long time with “Death of the Hired Man,” so I can do a chunk of that, as well as a few of the short Robert Frost poems. Oddly enough, I married into a lengthy arm of his family (my mother-in-law’s maiden name is Frost, and her brother is Robert). I still remember chunks of “Jabberwocky,” too.

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;

‘Cause I’m a womanPhenomenally.Phenomenal woman,That’s me.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep

O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done;

That’s my last duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive.

What came to mind for me was Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles; Lamentations of the Fatherby Ian Frazier. I thought of it as a poem (I had only heard it read aloud, on “A Prairie Home Companion”) but now that I’ve looked it up, it is formatted as prose, albeit Biblical. Here’s the opening line (the entire piece is rather long):

Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea,and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat,but not in the living room.

There’s also Soap Soup by Karla Kuskin. I still think of it when I set the table:

Put the dinneron the table.Then sit downand eat it, Mabel.

And if you are able,Mabel,you may also eatthe table.

Kristen Rutherford:

Favorite! I love Lorca – whenever I read his work, I feel like I have to put my hand over my heart as a shield to protect myself!

Variations

The still waters of the airunder the bough of the echo.

The still waters of the waterunder a frond of stars.

The still waters of your mouthunder a thicket of kisses.

Suzanne Lazear:
I’ve always loved this poem because it’s a reminder of how fast our kiddos grow up and that we should cherish those small moments as they come.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your clothempty the dustpan, poison the moth,hang out the washing and butter the bread,sew on a button and make up a bed.Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).Dishes are waiting and bills are past due(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stewand out in the yard there’s a hullabaloobut I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,and I gave her a lanyard.She nursed me in many a sick room,lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,and then led me out into the airy lightand taught me to walk and swim,and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.Here are thousands of meals, she said,and here is clothing and a good education.And here is your lanyard, I replied,which I made with a little help from a counselor.

And here’s part of one that cracks me right up – “Nightclub” – also by Collins:

You are so beautiful and I am a foolto be in love with youis a theme that keeps coming upin songs and poems.There seems to be no room for variation.I have never heard anyone singI am so beautifuland you are a fool to be in love with me,even though this notion has surelycrossed the minds of women and men alike.You are so beautiful, too bad you are a foolis another one you don’t hear.Or, you are a fool to consider me beautiful.That one you will never hear, guaranteed.

I was in 5th grade. I was in a gifted/talented elementary school program. We were asked to learn a poem to recite, and we chose from a variety of poems presented to us as options. I picked this one, and worked SO HARD to learn it, it has stuck with me 27 years later!

Is it necessarily a favorite? I’m not sure it’s a favorite, but it’s truly inspirational, and I’ve even used it (the first two stanzas) in several of my military briefings as an icebreaker when presenting something challenging.

Ahem….here goes!

Titled “It Couldn’t Be Done” by Edgar Guest.

Someone said it couldn’t be doneBut he with a chuckle repliedThat maybe it couldn’t but he would be the oneWho wouldn’t say so until he had tried.So he started right in with a trace of a grinOn his face. If he worried he hid it.He started to sing as he tackled the thingThat couldn’t be done, as he did it.Somebody scoffed “Oh you’ll never do that;At least no one we know has done it”;But he took of his coat and he took off his hat,And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,Without any doubting or quiddit,He started to sing as he tackled the thingThat couldn’t be done, and he did it.There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,There are thousands to prophesy failure;There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,The dangers that wait to assail you.But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin,Just take off your coat and go to it;Just start to sing as you tackle the thingThat cannot be done, and you’ll do it

Andrea

THE SADDEST POEM

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: “The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance.”

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don’t have her. To feel that I’ve lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn’t keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

This is a project after my own heart. I’m a fledgling poet (with a chapbook out of print and hopefully another coming out next year). I tend to have fierce reactions to poems—adoration or indifference with little in-between. Hard to imagine choosing a favorite when there’s so much to love about the work of so many poets: Lisel Mueller, Stephen Levine, Wendell Berry, Anne Sexton, Franz Wright, oh believe me I could drone on. Here’s one of my many favorites, one that I’ve been listening to in my head recently.

Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,know each of the star’s stories.Remember the moon, know who she is. I met herin a bar once in Iowa City.Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is thestrongest point of time. Remember sundownand the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggledto give you form and breath. You are evidence ofher life, and her mother’s, and hers.Remember your father. He is your life also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are:red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earthbrown earth, we are earth.Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have theirtribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,listen to them. They are alive poems.Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows theorigin of this universe. I heard her singing Kiowa wardance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you.Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.Remember that language comes from this.Remember the dance that language is, that life is.

French Arthur Rimbaud, the archetypal teenage-poet and “poète maudit“. His life is, of course, fascinating (Leonardo Di Caprio even played his role in a dispensable movie). But Rimbaud is also a wonderful seeker of a new language, the explorer of new images and new musics. An amazing poet.

A tree grew inside my head
A tree grew in.
Its roots are veins
its branches nerves,
thoughts its tangled foliage.
Your glance sets it on fire,
and its fruits of shade
are blood oranges
and pomegranates of flame.
Day breaks
in the body’s night.
There, within, inside my head,
the tree speaks.
Come closer—can you hear it?

Kristen is fully addicted to Game Dev Story. She would tell you more about it, but she’s busy waiting for the first week numbers to come back on the sequel to her Hall of Fame Game, “OMG JFK!” – a very popular Historical Action RPG.

Brigid had a mommy’s night out this week when she attended the Yann Tiersen concert in D.C. with a mommy friend. It was way super awesome, and they didn’t get lost or anything. GPS is a beautiful thing. So is Yann Tiersen.

Patricia Vollmer‘s family enjoyed a nice simple Valentine’s Day. Patricia’s dear husband set up a scavenger hunt around the house with cryptic clues about their marriage, eventually leading her to a pretty pair of earrings! The boys finally got the Pillow Pets they’d been begging for since last year, while Patricia’s husband enjoyed a fun chocolatey Valentine’s Day with a local delicacy: Sin in a Tin!

Cathe is crocheting Poke-balls to give as party favors at her daughter’s Pokemon themed 5th birthday party.

Sophie had a fantastic time taking her one year old son to the theatre for the first time this weekend to see The Chris & Pui Roadshow; he behaved perfectly for the whole hour. She also had some wonderfully geeky Valentines Day presents from her husband who clearly knows her very well!

Jenn Tylbon did, in fact, survive Snowpocalypse 2011 (Otherwise referred to as “Hey! It snowed a bit in Oklahoma!”). Oklahoma schools shut down for nearly two weeks straight because it looked like your average Tuesday in Vermont. Tornadoes we can handle but a foot of snow cripples us. At any rate, cabin fever set in and she decided eHarmony was a good idea. Never buy things online when you’ve been trapped in a tiny apartment with naught but a three-year-old and cranky cats for company. See her personal blog for updates on that.

Rebecca Angel has been delighted with a photography course she offered the last six weeks. The kids had a great time with their cameras, and class itself was filled with taking silly photos and chatting about what works and what doesn’t. The next session starts next week and she can’t wait to meet the next crop of students.

Over at GeekMom HQ this week, we’ve been having a good old chin-wag about who we would all like to be sending valentines cards to most. While our husbands, wives and boyfriends naturally top our real life lists, what about if we could send some cards to our favourite fictional characters, or to famous geeks, what would we say if we could send those cards? Well the GeekMoms have thought about it and come up with some great valentines messages to our geeky loves!

Pens, cassette players, toys, small gadgets. None of these were safe from me when I was a child. I’ve always been fascinated by the way things work, so I’ve always been a take-apart kind of person. Getting them back together with no pieces left over is another thing entirely.

I’ve always been the one to choose the road less traveled, preferring to make my own path. When other kids in my class were watching The Brady Bunch, my cousins and I were acting out scenes from Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Space: 1999. Then there was Dr. Who in high school (and now), and the list goes on.

Ever since I was very young, I’ve been a DIY geek. My mother and grandmother taught me how to knit, crochet, and do other needle work when I was about 5 years old. I don’t think I had one store-bought article of clothing until I went to Catholic school. I grew up to love crafts; and now I’m into scrapbooking, card making, and all manner of paper crafts and jewelry.

I was an English teacher for 13 years, and even among my teaching colleagues I was usually the odd one out. I believed (and still do) that children should be encouraged to be independent thinkers, always asking questions and not accepting that something is the truth simply because someone in “authority” says it’s so. Radical thinking for a Catholic school teacher, huh? I always told my students that my ultimate goal was to get them to the point at which they would no longer need me. Unheard of!

Then I married a Geek, who became a GeekDad to our two GeekKids, and I ultimately became a GeekMom. It was inevitable, I guess.

Right now I’m writing for several blogs (including my own) and scrapbooking/stamping sites. I’ve also been a member of numerous design teams and taught art workshops and classes. I still encourage others to be independent thinkers and color outside the lines. I still encourage those around me to believe in themselves — especially my husband and children, and on occasion myself.

Oh, and I still take things apart too. If my Blackberry could talk… Umm, yeah, I think I’ve voided that warranty several times over. I’m looking forward to working with this diverse, intriguing, and stimulating group of women known as GeekMom. Live long and prosper.

If you walked into my house you’d understand why I’m excited to be associated with the GeekMom blog. After you tripped over the mountains of shoes that belong to my four children and some of their visiting friends, you’d see a ratty old couch draped with teenage boys who seemed to have video game controllers glued to their hands.

When and if they ever finish trying out the latest and greatest video games, they’ll hand the television over to their ten-year-old little brother, who will hunker down to watch the next episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (again). Or maybe they’ll decide to stick around and play Rock Band. There’s also a good chance they’ll file down to the basement to take something apart (and occasionally put things back together).

Or maybe you’ll find them upstairs, sprawled out in our large toy room that’s covered in Lego creations. Every closet shelf is considered display space for the best of the best. Three tubs that are large enough for my littlest guy to sleep in are filled with unused pieces, ready for their turn. We’ve received Lego bricks for every birthday and holiday for over a decade, multiplied by three boys. So yeah, we own a few bricks.

Although my house is full of geek kids, personally I am not as technologically savvy as some of the other GeekMom writers. I adore my computer and am pretty sure I might cease to exist if something happened to it, but have no idea how it works. I have a cell phone but really only use its texting features to keep track of my teenagers. The main piece of technology I care about these days is my metal leg.

I live a pretty busy life, including a husband and four kids, a part-time job at the library, a weekly parenting column in two local papers, and this new gig at GeekMom. And it’s all made possible by a great bionic leg.

This ‘barely a GeekMom’ suddenly cared very much what was on the cutting edge of technology when I chose to have my left leg cut off and replaced six years ago. The world of prosthetics was changing rapidly and I loved what I was seeing on the prosthetic hardware websites. I quickly realized there were metal feet out there that could give me ten times more mobility that my old deformed foot ever could. I may not be the geekiest GeekMom on the site but I may be the most thankful for how technology can change your life.

We are a family who loves adventure. Having a husband who’s an archaeologist means every road trip turns into an opportunity for new discoveries. We love to hike and ski and see things we’ve never seen before.

We’ve moved across the country three times and lived in New Hampshire, Missouri, Washington D.C., Utah and New York. I love finding out what makes each state special and each region unique. We’ve dragged our kids to popular tourist sites and some places that our local neighbors have never heard of. It’s all about getting out there and seeing what’s around the next corner.

I look forward to learning from my fellow GeekMoms, about new products, new things to do with my kids, and new places to take them. Maybe by hanging out here I can increase my geek knowledge just a few notches. My teenagers would appreciate that. For now I’ll try to hold my own and soak up the great atmosphere. It’s an exciting environment and I’m happy to be a part of it.

While I’ll leave the sci-fi and game reviews to the GeekMoms better suited to such topics, you will find that I get a little geeky over things like crafts (all the better if they require recycled materials), creative problem solving, young adult literature, and gardening. I’m famous for the line, “Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Around here, such a statement is generally met with rolled eyes, in spite of the fact that they’re really good ideas.

As a freelance writer and author, I write most often about family, fun, and travel. I also do craft development for a number of publications, allowing me to implement at least a few of those aforementioned ideas. Also? I am wicked good with tape, cardboard, and a hot glue gun (stay tuned!).

I live on the Big Island of Hawai‘i with my husband and two teen boys. (Despite the vision you just had of me on the beach with an umbrella drink, I still cook, do laundry, and clean toilets. Reality lives in Paradise, too.) My youngest son is 15 and a certified LEGO geek. My eldest, 17, is a musician and all about the ‘ukulele. The website he started back when he was 14 – Live ‘Ukulele – is quickly nearing 2 million hits. I seem to have done a fine job of raising up two perfectly geeky kids.